


Sitting by the Tree

by schneefink



Category: Killjoys (TV)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Gen, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-30
Updated: 2015-08-30
Packaged: 2018-04-18 04:02:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4691288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/schneefink/pseuds/schneefink
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dutch and Johnny become partners. No, they do not want to have sex with each other.<br/>Or, five times someone thinks they want to sleep together and one time they sleep together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sitting by the Tree

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to dirty_diana for looking this over and to araline for reassuring me that it's good enough to post. The remaining mistakes are mine.

1.  
Two months after they met, Dutch sat down cross-legged on a cargo box while Johnny was tinkering with spare parts for Lucy. "John," Dutch said seriously, "there's something I need to say to you."

Johnny straightened so quickly that a screwdriver clattered to the floor. "What is it?" he asked. His left arm, where she'd shot him when she first saw him, twitched. He thought Dutch and he fit well together, but she was hard to get a read on. Every few days he got scared again that she'd decide she had enough of him and throw him off the ship. 

"I'm not going to have sex with you," Dutch said.

"Uh," Johnny said. "That's… okay? That's good? How did that come up?"

She looked at him, and he thought she looked a tiny bit uncertain. "I just didn't want there to be any wrong expectations."

"No, no! No expectations, seriously." Johnny held up his hands. "I don't want to sleep with you, I swear."

She kept looking at him. Johnny had to fight the impulse to blurt out that it wasn't because she wasn't beautiful, because she was, but he managed to keep his mouth shut.

"Okay," she said finally and hopped off the cargo box. "Good." 

Johnny slumped over his workbench as soon as she was gone. "Lucy, what was that all about?" he asked.

"I am afraid I cannot say," the computer said, and Johnny grinned because Lucy was finally talking to him. The first month, she'd only responded to him when he asked direct technical queries. She was warming up to him, he knew it.

"You know you're the prettiest girl around here," he told her sincerely. 

"Thank you, John," Lucy said, and he imagined she sounded a bit confused. At least he wasn't the only one anymore.

2.  
The first warrant Dutch took was a level three, and she finished it in two days. To celebrate she dragged Johnny into the first bar she could find, even though it was in the middle of Old Town.

One drink became two, and then three. Johnny wasn't the biggest fan of Westerly drinks, but Dutch was looking happier than he'd ever seen her before and for that he'd drink almost anything she set in front of him. Even if it was green and cloudy.

"Is there a specific occasion?" the barkeep – Brie or something like that - asked when they were at the bar again. 

"We're celebrating," Dutch said with a wide smile. "I closed my first warrant."

"A Killjoy," the barkeep said and gave her an appraising look. "Congratulations."

"Thanks!" she said and took another big sip. "I needed that."

"Well, if you need something more relaxing, there are always my sexers upstairs," the barkeep said.

It was tempting, and Johnny started to calculate. He wanted to get new filters and connectors for Lucy, she more than deserved it.

"Sure," Dutch said and threw her hair over her shoulder. "Sounds good."

Johnny stared at her. She hadn't had sex since they met, not to his knowledge, and he'd started to think that she just wasn't interested. Maybe celebrations were an exception. Or maybe it had taken her this long after her bloody wedding to get into the mood again.

Anyway, that sealed it. They definitely couldn't afford two, not after only the first warrant. Johnny finished his glass. "I'm heading back to Lucy," he said and stood up. "Have fun."

"Sure," Dutch said with a grin.

The barkeep was watching him with a hint of surprise on his face. "You two are not-", he gestured between them.

"Oh no," Johnny said, "no, we're… not," he ended lamely.

Dutch shot him an amused look. "I'm aaall free," she said and downed her own glass. "Now show me upstairs." 

3.  
Bellus sat down at her desk and rested her chin on her hands. "So," she said, looking deeply skeptical. "You want to make your boytoy into a Killjoy."

"I'm not her boytoy," Johnny protested, but Bellus ignored him. She usually did.

"We're not sleeping together," Dutch said exasperatedly. "We're partners."

"Sure. Partners." Bellus clearly didn't believe them. "Didn't you say he's a mechanic?"

"I am," Johnny said proudly. He was a damn good mechanic, thank you.

"Why Killjoy, then?"

"It'd be useful to have a partner who's also an agent," Dutch said. 

"I got too impatient being told to stay on the ship all the time," Johnny said. He loved Lucy, but having to stay and listen while Dutch walked into danger when he knew he could help her on the ground was hard.

Bellus snorted. "I can get you the paperwork. But I'm telling you, it's not going to end well. He's too soft."

"I'll manage," Johnny said.

Bellus mustered him, and he had to fight not to fidget. "You don't even look like you're that good in bed," she said finally.

"Hey!"

4.  
"You know, if you picked up instead of paying for it every time you could probably afford that new conductor you were talking about. Just saying." Dutch shrugged. 

"I pick up," Johnny said. "Sometimes." Not very often, but he did. Just last month he'd slept with Fancy Lee, but that had been an alcohol-supported one-night-thing. Fancy would probably shoot him if Johnny asked him out for dinner, not that Johnny wanted to. "It's just more convenient this way. I don't have to remember anniversaries. You've been seeing this guy for how long?"

Dutch grimaced, and Johnny immediately started to worry. It had been over three months, which for Dutch was a long time. She had even cut back on their warrants a little, ostensibly to pick the good ones but probably to spend more time with her boyfriend. 

"Everything okay?" Johnny asked, careful to sound casual.

"Yeah," Dutch said, "everything's fine." She took another sip of her drink.

Johnny waited. They sat together in silence for several moments, and then Dutch sighed. "He's just getting a bit clingy, is all. It's nothing, I'll deal with it."

"Sure," Johnny said. He made a mental note to check if they still had enough of the liquor Dutch preferred after break-ups on Lucy. Dutch was prone to quick affairs, brief flings that lasted a few weeks at most. At first he'd thought she didn't care too much when they ended, but she always got drunk the next day.

Dutch would slap him if Johnny told her boyfriends to damn well treat her right, but sometimes he was tempted. 

It was coincidence that he overheard her later that night, arguing with someone behind Pree's bar. He checked it out out of habit and almost left when he realized she was arguing with her boyfriend.

"Look, I have a job to do, alright?" Dutch snapped.

"Yeah, flying around with your other boyfriend all the time," the guy said, accusation clear in his tone.

For a moment Johnny wondered who he was talking about – did Dutch have a second lover? – before he realized the guy meant him.

"Johnny is not my boyfriend!" Dutch said. 

"Yeah, right," the guy snorted.

"And you know what, neither are you." 

Seconds later Dutch walked around the corner. Johnny forgot to step aside and she almost walked into him; he caught her arm and steadied her.

"Sorry," he said, "I was just passing by." Are you okay?, he wanted to ask, but right then she wouldn't want him to. Besides, it was pretty obvious that she was upset. "You want to get something to drink?"

"Yes," Dutch said emphatically. "I want to forget about that jerk. Let's see what Pree has on tab tonight."

Johnny thought Dutch's ex was watching them as they walked into the bar, and seeing them together would surely do nothing to destroy his idea that they were lovers. But he wasn't Dutch's boyfriend anymore and Johnny didn't give a fuck about what he thought.

"You know," Dutch slurred, several drinks later, "maybe you have the right idea about relationships after all." 

"Yeah, maybe," Johnny said. He was going to punch her asshole ex if he saw him again.

5.  
Johnny spotted Sheren immediately when she entered the room. Her hair was bright blue this time and her lipstick dark red. 

"Darling!" she called and hugged him, her big breasts pressing against his chest. 

"Hey," he said into her hair and then nudged her to the free stool next to him. "How are you doing? Do you want a drink?"

Johnny gestured for Pree. Dutch grinned at him and stood up, gesturing toward the door where Alvis had just walked in. Johnny tried not to roll his eyes. He still didn't like the weird monk very much. 

"I'm fantastic!" Sheren said. "How are you doing? And what are you doing later today?"

Johnny grinned. "Why, do you have an idea?" 

Two minutes later they'd discussed all the details and arranged to meet up that afternoon. Sheren kissed him and walked away with swinging hips, and Johnny watched her appreciatively. She was very uncomplicated, he liked that.

Pree was frowning when Johnny turned back to the bar. "What?" Johnny asked.

"You know, this probably isn't a good way to deal with your crush," Pree said, unsubtly looking toward where Dutch still stood at the entrance talking with Alvis. "Not that I don't understand the impulse, but…"

"For the twentieth time, I don't have a crush on Dutch!" Johnny said, maybe a bit louder than was warranted.

"Whoa." Pree took a step back with his hands raised. "No offense meant."

"Sorry. It's just… _why_ does nobody believe me that I don't want to have sex with her?" Johnny asked. "Gimme another one."

Pree obligingly refilled his glass. "Do you really want the list of reasons?" 

"Yes," Johnny said.

"You've been partners for three years, and you've barely spent any time apart," Pree said, raising one finger. "Both of you are overprotective - I've seen you literally take a knife for her in that last bar fight."

"That was an accident," Johnny grumbled.

"You would have done it regardless," and Johnny nodded to that because it was true. "Three, you wear her clothes." 

"Only that one time! Or two," Johnny protested. "Mine got ruined, it was an accident." 

"Sure," Pree said and raised an eyebrow. "You've been 'sparring'" – he did the fingerquotes - "for months now and you didn't actually get any better."

"I did so," Johnny complained. 

Pree ignored that. "She gave you the override protocols for her ship. If that's not love I don't know what is."

So? Dutch knew he would never do anything to harm Lucy. He loved Lucy, almost as much as he loved Dutch.

"And then there's the way you look when you think of her, and the way you look when you look at her," Pree concluded. 

"Yeah, I love her, but that doesn't mean I want to fuck her," Johnny said.

"No?"

"No. Why is that so hard to understand?" Johnny set his glass down and stood up, suddenly annoyed. "You know what, call me when you stop thinking you know me better than I do myself." 

He walked out, ignoring Pree calling after him. He'd only taken a few steps on the street when Dutch fell into step beside him.

"What was that about?" she asked.

"Nothing," Johnny said with a sigh. "It's fine. You got something in mind for our next warrant?"

+1  
Johnny was almost asleep when Dutch knocked on his door. "Come in," he called and sat up, rubbing his eyes. "What is it?"

"Nothing. Sorry, I didn't know you were sleeping," Dutch said and took a step backwards.

"No, no, come in. I was just resting my eyes." He pulled the blanket aside and patted the bed next to him.

Dutch hesitated and then walked in and sat down. "It's nothing, really. I just can't sleep."

"Nightmares?" he asked.

Dutch shrugged in a way that meant yes, but she didn't want to admit it. 

"Want to come watch me work on the new stabilizer? You said it's so boring it'll put you to sleep." Johnny couldn't stop a yawn himself, though it had nothing to do with the topic.

"You don't have to get up," Dutch said. "I'll let you sleep."

"Nonsense," Johnny grabbed her arm. "Come on, lie down and I'll tell you all about it."

Dutch hesitated again. Then she carefully crawled up on the bed and lay down next to him on her back. 

Johnny dimmed the lights and lay back. "The first thing I noticed was that they use a different material for the casing than the old ones…"

Dutch was sleeping deeply before he finished explaining the outer layer.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Sitting by the Tree [Podfic]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11858070) by [podfic_lover](https://archiveofourown.org/users/podfic_lover/pseuds/podfic_lover)




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